1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to integrated circuit devices and in particular to regulated voltage boost charge pumps for integrated circuit devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
As complexity of integrated circuits (ICs) increases, lower supply voltages and smaller nomenclature of such voltages are implemented to reduce power consumption and heat dissipation in IC devices. Whereas most functional components are compatible with nominal supply voltages provided to IC devices, there are several classes of components (e.g., voltage regulators, bandgap reference generators, and the like), which require for their operation non-nominal voltages greater than the nominal supply voltages.
Such non-nominal voltages are generated in IC devices using voltage boost charge pumps, which typically are unregulated voltage sources having relatively high levels of voltage noise and ripple. However, despite advantages of regulated power sources, generation of regulated non-nominal voltages in IC devices represents a challenging task, and improvements in the voltage boost charge pumps are desirable.